Tantalus - (Oberon Modern Playwrights) 2nd Edition by John Barton (Paperback)

About the Book

An epic theatre myth for the new millennium, in a revised and expanded 2nd edition.

Book Synopsis

Who is to Blame? What is the Truth? Could it be Otherwise?

When theatre began, two and a half millennia ago in ancient Greece, it drew from a well of even older myths, the Great Epic Cycle. These myths were Europe's first image of the tragedy and comedy of the human enterprise. Stories and characters from the beginning of our imagination inspired John Barton to write the great cycle of human life Tantalus, an epic theatre myth for the new millennium.

Its subject is the Trojan War, a crusade which becomes a catastrophe. Helen of Troy - was she really the cause of this ten-year war? Agamemnon's anguish - did he have to kill his daughter to start the war? Clytemnestra - was her murderous revenge justified? A wooden horse - how can it destroy a great city? Heroes humbled, children hurt, mothers and fathers bereaved, entire nations shaken and rebuilt: all pass through this kaleidoscope of human fate.

This new, revised and streamlined edition of Tantalus is the culmination of a life-time's work.

John Barton is a director and an Advisory Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (which he helped found in 1959). He spent nearly 20 years developing his epic Tantalus, which is an extension of his earlier work, The Greeks (1980). He has adapted some twenty texts for the theatre and has also published, The First Stage, The Hollow Crown, The Wars of the Roses, The Greeks, La Ronde and Playing Shakespeare.

About the Author

John Barton is a writer and director who, with Peter Hall, co-founded the Royal Shakespeare Company, where Barton was an active director for over forty years. His landmark productions included Twelfth Night with Judi Dench as Viola, and a sequence of Shakespeare's History Plays (with Peter Hall). A prolific writer and adaptor, he has spent over 30 years developing Tantalus, which is an extension of his earlier work, The Greeks (1980). He has adapted some twenty other texts for the theatre and has also had published The First Stage, The Hollow Crown, The Wars of the Roses, The Greeks, La Ronde, The Rover and the legendary Playing Shakespeare (also a television series).